With the development of the arms race in the 1950s, an apocalyptic war between the United

States and the Soviet Union was considered possible. Among the historical events considered
potential triggers for a nuclear conflict were:

25 June 1950 27 July 1953: The Korean War, a war between two factions trying to
control the Korean Peninsula: a communist one supported by China and the USSR, and a
capitalist one, supported by the UN and the United States. Many people believed that it
would escalate into full-scale war between the three superpowers. CBS war
correspondent Bill Downs wrote in 1951 that, "To my mind, the answer is: Yes, Korea is
the beginning of World War III. The brilliant landings at Inchon and the cooperative
efforts of the American armed forces with the United Nations Allies have won us a
victory in Korea. But this is only the first battle in a major international struggle which
now is engulfing the Far East and the entire world."[40] He repeated this belief on ABC
Evening News while reporting on the USS Pueblo incident in 1968.[41]

1528 October 1962: The Cuban missile crisis, a confrontation on the stationing of
Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, is often considered as having been the closest to a
nuclear exchange, which could have precipitated a Third World War. The crisis peaked on
27 October, when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and another almost intercepted over
Siberia, after Curtis LeMay (US Air Force Chief of Staff) had neglected to enforce
Presidential orders to suspend all overflights, and a Soviet submarine nearly launched a
nuclear-tipped torpedo in response to depth charges (with the launch being prevented by
an officer named Vasili Arkhipov).

625 October 1973: The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, or October
War, began with Arab victories. Israel successfully counterattacked. Tensions grew
between the US (which supported Israel) and the Soviet Union (which sided with the
Arab states). American and Soviet naval forces came close to firing upon each other.
Admiral Murphy of the US reckoned the chances of the Soviet squadron attempting a
first strike against his fleet at 40 percent. The Pentagon moved Defcon status from 4 to 3.
[42]
The superpowers had been pushed to the brink of war.[43][44]

26 September 1983: A false alarm occurred on the Soviet nuclear early warning system,
showing the launch of American Minuteman ICBMs from bases in the United States. A
retaliatory attack was prevented by Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence
Forces, who realised the system had simply malfunctioned (which was borne out by later
investigations).[45][46]

25 January 1995: The Norwegian rocket incident occurred when the radar signature of a
Black Brant XII research rocket being jointly launched by Norwegian and US scientists
from Andya Rocket Range was mistaken for a Trident SLBM launch by the Russian
Federation's Olenegorsk early warning station. In response, President Boris Yeltsin was
summoned and the Cheget nuclear briefcase was activated for the first and only time.
However, the high command was soon able to determine that the rocket was not entering
Russian airspace, and promptly aborted plans for combat readiness and retaliation. It was

retrospectively determined that, while the rocket scientists had informed thirty states
including Russia about the test launch, the information had not reached Russian radar
technicians.[47][48]